This website uses cookies. We use technologies, such as cookies, to customise content and advertising, to provide social media features and to analyse traffic to the site (including the use of ad blockers). By continuing to use our website you consent to our Privacy and Cookie Policy. Read more

Martin Campbell To Direct Green Lantern?

DC superhero to light up the big screen

For years now, while Marvel has been steaming ahead with plans to bring its entire roster of big-name superheroes to the big screen via development deals with separate studios (before, of course, going solo itself), its main rival, DC, has been, well, less effective.

Sure, there’s the small matter of Superman Returns and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films, which we believe were moderately successful – but when it’s come to superheroes outside DC’s big two, the comics giant and its movie studio owner, Warners, have had precious little success.

George Miller’s Justice League of America movie was announced with great fanfare, and fell apart quickly. Joss Whedon came and went on Wonder Woman. And if The Flash moved as slowly as the movie that will bear his name, nobody would want to see a film about him in the first place.

But today, we had the first real and serious movement on a non-Superman or Batman DC/Warners movie (if you don’t count Watchmen, which doesn’t take place in the DC universe and which didn’t start off at Warners) in a while, with the news that Martin Campbell is set to direct the big-screen version of Green Lantern – the DC superhero who derives his Superman-level power from a green ring that allows him to fly, project nifty laser shapes and read under the covers.

The Kiwi director has, of course, got form when it comes to launching, or relaunching, franchises, with his sterling work on Goldeneye, Casino Royale and The Mask Of Zorro, so he’s a fine choice for a movie like this. He’s just finished his remake of his own BBC TV mini-series, Edge Of Darkness, so presumably he fancies something a little lighter and more colourful – well, there are forty shades of green, after all.

Campbell will replace the project’s original director, Greg Berlanti, who wrote the script along with Marc Guggenheim and Michael Green. Berlanti will also produce along with Donald De Line, and has moved on to direct the aptly-named This Is Where I Leave You, also for Warners.

There’s no word yet on the precise timeframe for the Green Lantern movie, but it’s believed that Warners is keen to get this one going as soon as they can. And with a script, director and producers on board, there’s no reason why they couldn’t be rolling by the summer’s end.

What this means for Campbell’s involvement with the remake of The Birds is not clear at this moment. But, readers, which would you rather see – another addition to the increasingly crowded ranks of superhero movies, or a take on Hitchcock’s classic? Or would you like to see Campbell go elsewhere – another Bond movie? Vertical Limit 2? Answers below, please.